Understanding
Mental IllnessThe fact is, a mental illness is a disorder of the brain
 your bodys most important organ  and one
in four adults experience mental illness in a given year,
including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and
PTSD.

Like most diseases of the body, mental
illness has many causes  from genetics to other
biological, environmental and social / cultural factors. And
just as with most diseases, mental illnesses are no
ones fault. The unusual behaviors associated with some
illnesses are symptoms of the disease  not the
cause.

But most importantly, mental illnesses
are treatable through medication and psychosocial therapies
 allowing those who live with them the opportunity to
lead full and productive lives.

Talking Openly
About Mental Illness
What if you could talk entirely openly about your experience
of mental illness?

What if there were a space you could
go where you could talk to people who would not judge you,
people could be there for you unconditionally, who would
just listen?

What if that space wasnt a
support group, a place thats defined explicitly as
something thats for people with mental
illness in their lives? What if it could be a mix of people
with direct lived experience -- people who have struggled
themselves, perhaps thought about or attempted
suicide,
people who are actively facing the ins-and-outs of real life
mental illness -- and people who have loved ones who have
struggled, attempted suicide, died by suicide?

I had this experience in the days
leading up to the Out
of the Darkness Overnight Walk.
The Overnight is a tradition (and fundraiser) organized by
the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). This
year was my second overnight. I walked in D.C. alongside my
mom and a group of new friends; last year, I walked among
friends and strangers in New York.

AFSP
provides a number of resources for people facing mental
illness and their loved ones, particularly for people who
have lost someone to suicide. The Overnight, in many ways,
is one of these resources, a chance to connect with others
who also have personal experiences with mental
illness.

The group I connected with was brought
together by Elijahs
Journey, an initiative that
aims to be a Jewish resource on the issues of suicide and
suicide prevention. We were connected not only by our life
experiences with mental illness, but by our Jewish
backgrounds.

Did that similarity make it easier to
speak openly? Traditionally, Jewish communities have been
quiet, sometimes silent, about suicide. Like other social
issues, such as addiction
or domestic
violence, mental illness and
suicide can be frightening to face in an insular community.
People facing mental illness as well as families left behind
after a suicide death sometimes describe feeling isolated,
on the margins, or misunderstood by their Jewish
communities. This experience is not unique to the Jewish
community. It likely crosses the boundaries of other
communities with a history of marginalization. There is
fear
of airing our dirty laundry and being judged by
outsiders.

Still, in this group, we spoke more
openly about our experiences of struggle, sadness, fear,
loss, and moving forward than, Id venture to guess,
close friends of many years might speak about these issues.
We kept noticing, and saying, that it seemed like wed
been best friends for years. Truly, we had just
met.

What created a space of
safety?

Id venture to guess that, at
least in part, its love.
Love, as defined in the dictionary as an intense
feeling of deep affection. But, also, love as defined
in an excerpt from this poem by Marge Piercy, called
To Have Without Holding:

Learning to love differently is
hard,
love with the hands wide open, love
with the doors banging on their hinges,
the cupboard unlocked, the wind
roaring and whimpering in the rooms
rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds
that thwack like rubber bands
in an open palm.

It hurts to love wide open
stretching the muscles that feel
as if they are made of wet plaster,
then of blunt knives, then
of sharp knives.

It hurts to thwart the reflexes
of grab, of clutch; to love and let
go again and again. It pesters to remember
the lover who is not in the bed,
to hold back what is owed to the work
that gutters like a candle in a cave
without air, to love consciously,
conscientiously, concretely,
constructively.

There isnt research to support
love, but there is research to support the idea that
connectedness
serves as a protective factor, and that feeling a sense of
belongingness
helps people feel that they want to live.

Local rap artist battles suicide with
music
Did you know in Maryland, suicide is reportedly the leading
cause of death for 10- to 14-year-olds? Its also a
significant problem for teens and adults in
Virginia.

A local rap artist is taking on the
tough issue with his talents -- a song playing on DC-area
radio stations.

WUSA9 played the song for activists
with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The
reactions were emotional.

The artist is from Gaithersburg and
goes by Logic. His real name is Bobby Tarantino. He was
interviewed about the song on the Genius Video Series called
Verified.

RELATED: Preventing teenage suicide
& depression

Hopefully I am never there, but
I know a lot of people who have, Tarantino is heard
saying.

The songs called 1-800-273-8255.
Thats the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline.

Ive been on the low,
Ive been taking my time. I feel like Im out of
my line, are the first few lines of the song. Then the
first chorus goes, I dont want to be
alive I just want to die, I dont want to be
alive.

The three women listened to the entire
song. Leigh Boswell said she was holding back
tears.

Ali Walker told WUSA9, That
deep, emotional pain that people are feeling, thats
really tough to listen to as somebody who has lost someone
to suicide.

Thats a very difficult
thing to hear and acknowledge," said Ellen
Shannon.

Shannons the Area Director for
the National Capital Area Chapter of the American Foundation
for Suicide Prevention. In Virginia, which is where she
works, the AFSP says suicide is the second-leading cause of
death for people ages 15-34.

My daughters had two
suicides at her school, I live in Loudoun County 
Stonebridge High School, in the last six months, said
Boswell. Boswell organized last years Walk to Fight
Suicide in Fairfax, Va.

The song starts off as dark and
difficult to hear, but then it takes a turn. I want
you to be alive, the lyrics say, You dont
gotta die today.

As difficult as it is to listen
to, it ends on a positive and hopeful message and one that
resonates with me and I hope resonates with a lot of people:
is that there is a lot of help out there
available unfortunately I lost my friend but hopefully
if we work together, a lot of people will hold onto their
loved ones, said Walker.

What can be done? Click
here for upcoming AFSP events
in the National Capital area.

This
Instagrammer is battling mental health issues one post at a
time
27-year-old Elyse Fox used to be a sad girl. She still
is--only now she has an online and in-person support group
called the Sad Girls Club. The NYC-based group offers tips,
statistics, words of support and community to young women
dealing with depression. For those who cannot attend
meetings IRL, Fox's Instagram account offers a connection to
a digital community of support. "We let our members know
they are heard and important," she explains. "The best part
of our Instagram is the community. I love reading the
comments and seeing women from around the world uplift one
another."

Fox has struggled with depression her
whole life and grew up feeling like there was an unavoidable
stigma around it. "I knew what depression was when I was
younger so I wasn't too in the dark about what was going on
in my head," she says. "I think that knowledge and education
is key." She believes that giving children the language to
discuss mental health at an early age is important. Fox
herself did not seek professional help until she was older
since she felt like she couldn't talk about it. "I notice
the most common problem is that girls feel like they have
nobody to speak to, they have no one they can relate to. The
feeling of solitude is a common struggle."

A relationship with a physically
abusive boyfriend was when things hit rock bottom and
prompted Fox to chronicle her struggles through a personal
documentary titled Conversations with Friends. "I refer to
the film as my "coming out" party for my depression," Fox
says. The film ultimately ignited a larger conversation
about depression when she found her inbox full of stories
similar to hers. "Girls from all over the world requested
advice, mentorship, and guidance through their own mental
illnesses. I felt the need to create a platform for girls so
they know they're not alone." Sad Girls Club's Instagram now
has a following of over fifteen thousand with members from
around the world.

Right now, Sad Girls Club hosts
impromptu meet-ups and chalks "positive affirmative"
graffiti around New York City. But the Brooklyn-based
filmmaker wants to expand the movement into other parts of
the country and eventually all over the world. "I'm working
to spread SadGirlsClub IRL events across the country." That
includes a Kickstarter campaign to launch a "Millennial
Mental Health Tour" that aims to visit 5 major cities to
conduct workshops and panels geared at helping women talk
about and cope with mental health issues.

Fox is dedicated and wants to help as
many women as possible, but she also understands that it's a
long journey and encourages girls all around the world with
limited or no access mental health care to form their own
support groups. "Create your own Sad Girls Club with your
close friends to have a support system. Even if it's only
two of you, having that foundation to fall back on can help
you feel less alone supported," she says. And of course, she
and the Sad Girls Club account are always there. "I know
it's easier said than done but please know you're not
alone."Source: www.papermag.com/this-instagrammer-is-battling-mental-health-issues-one-post-at-a-time-2448561371.html

What is Stigma?
The FactsThe fact is, a mental illness is a disorder of the brain
 your bodys most important organ  and one
in four adults experience mental illness in a given year,
including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and
PTSD.

Like most diseases of the body, mental
illness has many causes  from genetics to other
biological, environmental and social / cultural factors. And
just as with most diseases, mental illnesses are no
ones fault. The unusual behaviors associated with some
illnesses are symptoms of the disease  not the
cause.

But most importantly, mental illnesses
are treatable through medication and psychosocial therapies
 allowing those who live with them the opportunity to
lead full and productive lives.

Facts vs
Fiction

FICTION: People living with a
mental illness are often violent.

FACT: Actually, the vast
majority of people living with mental health conditions are
no more violent than anyone else. People with mental illness
are much more likely to be the victims of crime.

FICTION: Mental illness is a
sign of weakness.

FACT: A mental illness is not
caused by personal weakness  nor can it be cured by
positive thinking or willpower  proper treatment is
needed.

FICTION: Only military
personnel who have been in combat can be diagnosed with
PTSD.

FACT: While PTSD is prevalent
in men and women who have seen combat, experiencing or
witnessing a traumatic event can trigger PTSD, including
violent personal assaults such as rape or robbery, natural
or human-caused disasters, or accidents.

FICTION: People with a mental
illness will never get better.

FACT: For some people, a mental
illness may be a lifelong condition, like diabetes. But as
with diabetes, proper treatment enables many people with a
mental illness to lead fulfilling and productive
lives.

FICTION: Children arent
diagnosed wtih mental illness.

FACT: Millions of children are
affected by depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses.
As a matter of fact, 1 in 10 children live with a
diagnosable mental illness. Getting treatment is
essential.

FICTION: Mental illness
cant affect me!

FACT: Mental illness can affect
anyone. While some illnesses have a genetic risk, mental
illness can affect people of all ages, races and income
levels, whether or not there is a family
history.

Newburg Oregon
Girl Got A Clever Tattoo To Get The Conversation Going About
DepressionBekah Miles, a 20-year-old student at George Fox
University in Newberg, Oregon, has made a big splash by
helping to bring attention to a pressing mental health
issue.

Miles was diagnosed with depression
last year, and she told BuzzFeed that she sought help after
hearing her college professors story of dealing with
depression.

In a class I had with her,
she opened up about her own struggles that she has faced
with her own mental illness.

Hearing her words made me realize
that even though it can seem like you are the happiest,
most intelligent, or down-to-earth human being, everyone
has struggles.

I sought her out not long after.
She helped me find the right help that I
needed.

After getting help herself, Miles
decided she wanted to do something to get a conversation
started about the disorder.

Last week, she got a tattoo that at
first appears to read Im fine. But when
you look at it from her perspective from above, it reads
Save me. The picture was accompanied by some of
her thoughts on depression.

The post reads in part:

Last year, I was diagnosed
with depression. And in all honesty, I believe it was a
problem for quite a while before that, but I think it
just got worse to the point of hardly functioning.

So today, I got this tattoo. I feel
that my leg was the best place for the meaning behind it.
When everyone else sees it, they see Im
fine, but from my viewpoint, it reads save
me. To me, it means that others see this person
that seems okay, but, in reality, is not okay at all. It
reminds me that people who may appear happy, may be at
battle with themselves.

It ends with a quote attributed to
Robin Williams:

I think that saddest
people always ty their hardest to make people happy
because they know what it's like to feel absolutely
worthless and they don't want anyone else to feel like
that. - Robin Williams

Since sharing the picture on Facebook
last Sunday, the post went viral with over 290,000 likes and
around 250,000 shares at the time of this writing. The
comments  roughly 27,000 of them  have been
overwhelmingly positive.

Since sharing the picture on Facebook
last Sunday, the post went viral with over 290,000 likes and
around 250,000 shares at the time of this writing. The
comments  roughly 27,000 of them  have been
overwhelmingly positive.

Miles has since followed up with
another post saying shes glad to get the message out
there, and hopes the conversation will continue.

She went on to tell BuzzFeed about her
ultimate goal. The stigma needs to end. And I know
that this post wont end it, but I sure hope and want
to be a part of the fight against it.

Joy Turns to
Pain When You Flip Over These Clever Suicide-Prevention Ads
Real message is upside down
Publicis's poignant print ads for suicide-prevention group
Samaritans of Singapore use ambigrams to give upbeat
messages negative meanings when viewed upside down. "I'm
fine" becomes "Save me," "Life is great" morphs into "I hate
myself" and "I feel fantastic" reads "I'm falling apart."
The tagline, "The signs are there if you read them. Help us
save a life before it's too late," is also printed upside
down. The campaign does a fine job of depicting the subtle,
often hidden nature of depression and anxiety disorders.
It's novel for the category, taking an approach that's
clever enough to generate broad coverage, extending the
message far beyond its original market. Perhaps those
reading about this work will question declarations of
happiness from friends and family members that don't quite
ring true. The writing may be on the wall, but sometimes
you've got to look at things in a different way to avert
disaster. See the photos here.
Source: www.adweek.com/adfreak/joy-turns-pain-when-you-flip-over-these-clever-suicide-prevention-ads-150621

I know what
will wipe out mental health stigma
More people are speaking outSuicide survivors, suicide
loss survivors, overdose survivors, those who suffer with
mental illness.

Parents are motivated to seek help and
are risking the fallout of reaching out because the risk of
losing their child outweighs their fear of living with
shame.

Then there is the awareness, rising
suicide rates, media coverage and the opiate epidemic which
has cut across all racial and socioeconomic groups including
politicians.

All of this works in tandem together
to raise awareness and educate millions.

But thats just part of it.
Its not the secret sauce

The one thing that has been the most
influential is you. Yes, you are the secret
sauce.

You will be the ones wiping out
stigma. How?

I can sit here and write all day but
Im a minority in this game. With no audience, no one
to help me carry the message, it would die right here
collecting server dust.

Those of us who have lost a loved one
or are currently struggling with mental illness cant
do it alone.

Its our friends who run along
beside us, holding us up and encouraging us in our darkest
hour that are making a difference. Its a group effort
and you are our cheerleadersthe catalyst that is
sparking change.

Its an effort of love and
compassion which restores my faith in humanity

You have decided to stand up for
something. Youve decided that you are not ashamed to
post any of this on your social media profiles. You have
guts.

For that I am grateful. Because we are
starting to see real conversation and real change. People
everywhere are speaking out and you are amplifying that
message and emphasizing the importance of family because
youve seen the results of doing nothing and staying
silent.

People not supporting depression or
addiction as an illness have already started to look old,
stodgy, uninformed and close minded. I believe in less than
two years, it will be uncool to talk about
mental illness or addiction as moral failings.

If there is one thing people
dont like, they dont like to look bad. Or
stupid. That alone will incentivize people to change their
minds.

Hope, help for
teens with mental illnessAbout 20% of teens have a mental health condition, the
National Alliance on Mental Illness reports.

90% of teens who commit suicide had
underlying mental illness, according to NAMI.

About half of all instances of mental
illness begin by age 14, according to NAMI.

Graham Moore, the Academy Award winner
for Best Adapted Screenplay, said in his acceptance speech
Sunday that he contemplated suicide at age 16.

He urged kids who feel weird,
different, or like they don't belong to stick it out: "Stay
weird, stay different," he said, Oscar in hand. "And then
when it's your turn, and you are standing on this stage,
please pass the same message to the next person who comes
along."

It was a moment of national awareness
for teen suicide, the third-leading cause of death among
youths ages 10-24. Moore later told reporters he had
depression as a teen.

Just a couple days before the Academy
Awards, a 9-year-old Detroit boy hanged himself after
getting into an argument with his family. Three years ago,
there were headlines about a 7-year-old Detroit boy who
killed himself after being bullied.

Suicide is most common among people
with mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness
reports that 90% of youths who died by suicide had an
underlying mental illness.

To address that, and to offer help to
kids who are suffering and their families, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and a coalition of other
organizations plans to host a conference at 1 p.m. Sunday
about teen mental health at West Bloomfield High
School.

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is among the organizers of the conference. She said she will
never forget the agony of watching her 6-year-old daughter
fight through mood swings, bouts of extreme sadness, and
explosive tantrums.

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is chairwoman

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is chairwoman of the youth professional council of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. (Photo: Joel Q.
Hack)

"By the time she was 9 or 10 years
old, she was saying, 'Mommy, I want to die. I don't know
why, I just want to die,' " she said. "This is a 9-year-old
child. This isn't a child who's aware of anything other than
an overwhelming desire.

"When your child says, 'I just want to
die, Mommy,' you can't say, 'Let's go get a lollipop and
it'll be all better, honey."

Beaulieu-Hack's little girl, Maggie,
eventually was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but was
terrified to tell anyone; she worried that she'd be shunned
at school or treated differently. She tried to hide her
illness, but by the time she came home at the end of the
school day, she would practically explode with pent-up
emotion, Beaulieu-Hack said.

"She was in her junior year in high
school before she told a single friend," she said. "The
reality is our kids are hiding, and they shouldn't have to.
And nor should the families have to hide. The parents are
hiding."

Beaulieu-Hack, chairwoman of the youth
professional council of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, is trying to ensure that no one needs
to hide anymore. She wants those who are struggling and
dealing with the shame of a mental health condition 
which affect 20% of teens, according to the National
Alliance on Mental Illness  to know there is help.
There are people who understand.

Among those who do is Ross Szabo, CEO
of the Human Power Project and author of "Behind Happy
Faces: Talking about Mental Health and Teen Mental Illness."
He was diagnosed at age 16 with bipolar disorder, and plans
to speak at the conference.

Ross Szabo, CEO of the Human Power
Project and author of Behind Happy Faces: Talking
about Mental Health and Teen Mental Illness" is to speak at
a conference at West Bloomfield High School March 1. (Photo:
Ben Zeiber)

"We treat mental health
conferences like conferences for other people," he told
the Free Press in a phone interview last week. "When what
we're seeing more and more now is that mental health can
affect so many different aspects of your life. I wish it
was possible to treat mental health conferences like
they're conferences for all people. They're really for
everybody."

Szabo developed a mental health
curriculum for schools and colleges that teaches coping
mechanisms, gives students a vocabulary to describe how
they're feeling and helps them know what to do if a friend
needs help.

"I think the most important
thing is to make mental health approachable," he said.
"We need to remove the stigma, let students know they can
talk about whatever they're going through, giving them a
vocabulary so when they're talking about what they're
going through they can talk about it with the right
words."

Those who attend the conference will
get information, as well as resources that can help families
as they work to address mental health issues. Those
resources are vital as services and medications often are
not covered by health insurance.

"My daughter has never been
covered by insurance  prescriptions or the care or
hospitalization," Beaulieu-Hack said. "There were months
I was spending $800 for prescriptions just for her. An
awareness many people don't have is the immense
cost."

Beyond that, Szabo says, is the
emotional toll.

"We don't talk about
emotions, period," Szabo said. "We don't talk about
emotional situations, period, and we don't think mental
illnesses are treatable. We create an environment where
someone does feel a lot of shame and embarrassment, and
they may feel weak for not being able to control what
they're going through.

"The most important thing I try to
do is normalize the concept of mental heath, rather than
isolating mental illness. If you're a parent or in any
aspect of life, it's important to come to something like
this. Mental health affects everyone, no matter what age
they are. The more we try to educate about it, the better
it's going to make people's lives."

A community conference on teen mental
health, called "The Dark Secret of Teen Mental Illness," is
open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. Sunday at West
Bloomfield High School, 4925 Orchard Lake Road, West
Bloomfield. Preregistration is a $5 donation to Common
Ground Sanctuary, or $10 at the door. Register online at
jewishdetroit.org/events.

Get help

If you are, or someone you know is,
considering suicide or need help right away, call the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or call
911.

Warning signs of mental
illness

Every form of mental illness has its
own symptoms but the National Alliance on Mental Illness,
www.nami.org, reports that some common signs in adults and
teens can include:

Excessive worrying or
fear

Feeling very sad or
low

Confused thinking or difficulty
with concentrating and learning

Extreme mood changes

Strong feelings of irritability or
anger

Avoiding friends and social
activities

Difficulty understanding or
relating to other people

Changes in sleeping habits or
feeling tired

Changes in eating
habits

Changes in sex drive

Difficulty perceiving
reality

Inability to recognize changes in
one's own feelings, behavior or personality

Between the
Lines: Suicides Shameful StigmaSuicide is the epitome of hopelessness. Its a last
resort for people who believe that there is no chance of
life improving. Options for help can seem unavailable or
unfathomable.

If there is an antidote for suicide,
we have yet to find it. But we can be fairly certain that
sneers of get over it are as helpful as shouting
at a drowning person to swim.

An antidote is exactly what the U.S.
needs, as the suicide rate in this nation is on a steady
rise. Since 2003, the suicide rate in America has grown by
4.2 percent annually. Overall, 5,100 people in Massachusetts
killed themselves between 2003 and 2012, according to the
Winter 2015 Suicides and Self-inflicted Injuries in
Massachusetts Data Summary produced by the Department of
Public Health.

In 2012, there were 624 suicides in
the state. This elevated the suicide rate from 6.6 deaths
per 100,000 people in 2003 to 9.4 deaths. Suicide isnt
just a problem in the U.S. According to the World Health
Organization, it is the third leading cause of death
worldwide.

Despite this growing health concern,
care and services for suicidal people and their loved ones
are seriously lacking. This probably has a lot to do with
the social stigma attached to having suicidal thoughts and
seeking help from loved ones or professionals. The social
shame associated with suicide keeps many quiet, the WHO and
state health department noted. In fact, suicides in this
nation and worldwide are underreported because people will
try to disguise their deaths as accidents  like a
single car crash or asphyxiation  and loved ones are
often too embarrassed, guilty, or ashamed to admit that a
death was a suicide.

This needs to stop before we lose more
bright, creative, caring people to self-harm. The U.S. and
the world can no longer treat suicide as a taboo subject.
Having suicidal thoughts does not make a person weak. Many
people, at some point in their lives, consider suicide. But
discussing suicidal ideation may seem horrifying. Fear of
rejection, of not being taken seriously, or of being carted
off to a mental hospital against ones will conspire to
keep suicidal thoughts a nightmare of one.

The first thing the state and the
nation can do to crack the stigma that keeps people from
seeking help is to decriminalize suicide. Calling suicide
and attempted suicide a crime reinforces the stigma that
suicide, and suicidal people, are dangerous and need to be
punished. Thats the message being sent from the top,
and until that changes, cultural attitudes about mental
health and suicide are going to be slow to shift.

The next thing the state and the
nation will need to do to quash this preventable and painful
scourge is to start funding community mental health
services. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) is the governments arm in the
field of suicide prevention, and it has been dialing back
programs that address suicide. In 2014, for example, SAMHSA
requested $50 million for suicide prevention programs 
$8 million less than what they asked for in 2012, according
to the TIME article Inside the National Suicide
Hotline: Preventing the Next Tragedy.

But increased funding must be spent
wisely, and when it comes to current suicide prevention,
its mostly trial and error to see what works, with
little ability to collect data on effectiveness. As the
research community will acknowledge, figuring out whether an
anti-suicide strategy works is difficult. Unless the
suicidal person comes back to where she received services
and says, You saved my life, theres no way
of knowing.

Right now, the countrys most
visible form of suicide prevention is the National Suicide
Prevention Hotline, which provides a person to talk to 24/7
at (800) 273-8255.

As someone who has needed to avail
myself of the hotlines services before, I can tell you
that the people who pick up the phone are well-meaning but,
at least in my experience, woefully unprepared to provide
assistance. The last time I called the hotline, about three
years ago, it was to get advice on how to help a suicidal
friend, but the operator refused to believe I wasnt
suicidal. She asked me over and over again whether this
friend I was calling for was really
myself.

My friend was on the edge and I
couldnt wrangle any help from the hotline, which was
disappointing. I hung up and called the Springfield police
to conduct a wellness check on my friend. Im not sure
how that played out. My friend is still alive, but that
night was the last time I spoke with her. Im pretty
sure that night was also the first night she reached out to
anyone for help with her suicidal thoughts. But she needed
help long before that and never got it because she was too
afraid admitting her problem would get her locked up in a
mental institution away from her children. A single mother
should not feel like her only options are killing herself or
suffering in silence.

An alternative to the Natinoal Phone
Helpline was developed in August of 2013. It is a national,
confidential, 24/7 Crisis Text Line number 741741 for
everyone, but especially youth in crisis whose main form of
communication is not talking but texting.

Suicide is wiping out large swaths of
our population. The time to sweep mental illness and
suicidal thoughts out of our hearts and minds is over.
Suicide should be discussed openly and without fear 
it is the only way to take power away from this twisted
killer. Politicians can show real leadership in this by
ridding the nation of the stigma and decriminalizing
suicide.

Newburg Oregon
Girl Got A Clever Tattoo To Get The Conversation Going About
DepressionBekah Miles, a 20-year-old student at George Fox
University in Newberg, Oregon, has made a big splash by
helping to bring attention to a pressing mental health
issue.

Miles was diagnosed with depression
last year, and she told BuzzFeed that she sought help after
hearing her college professors story of dealing with
depression.

In a class I had with her,
she opened up about her own struggles that she has faced
with her own mental illness.

Hearing her words made me realize
that even though it can seem like you are the happiest,
most intelligent, or down-to-earth human being, everyone
has struggles.

I sought her out not long after.
She helped me find the right help that I
needed.

After getting help herself, Miles
decided she wanted to do something to get a conversation
started about the disorder.

Last week, she got a tattoo that at
first appears to read Im fine. But when
you look at it from her perspective from above, it reads
Save me. The picture was accompanied by some of
her thoughts on depression.

The post reads in part:

Last year, I was diagnosed
with depression. And in all honesty, I believe it was a
problem for quite a while before that, but I think it
just got worse to the point of hardly functioning.

So today, I got this tattoo. I feel
that my leg was the best place for the meaning behind it.
When everyone else sees it, they see Im
fine, but from my viewpoint, it reads save
me. To me, it means that others see this person
that seems okay, but, in reality, is not okay at all. It
reminds me that people who may appear happy, may be at
battle with themselves.

It ends with a quote attributed to
Robin Williams:

I think that saddest
people always ty their hardest to make people happy
because they know what it's like to feel absolutely
worthless and they don't want anyone else to feel like
that. - Robin Williams

Since sharing the picture on Facebook
last Sunday, the post went viral with over 290,000 likes and
around 250,000 shares at the time of this writing. The
comments  roughly 27,000 of them  have been
overwhelmingly positive.

Since sharing the picture on Facebook
last Sunday, the post went viral with over 290,000 likes and
around 250,000 shares at the time of this writing. The
comments  roughly 27,000 of them  have been
overwhelmingly positive.

Miles has since followed up with
another post saying shes glad to get the message out
there, and hopes the conversation will continue.

She went on to tell BuzzFeed about her
ultimate goal. The stigma needs to end. And I know
that this post wont end it, but I sure hope and want
to be a part of the fight against it.

I know what
will wipe out mental health stigma
More people are speaking outSuicide survivors, suicide
loss survivors, overdose survivors, those who suffer with
mental illness.

Parents are motivated to seek help and
are risking the fallout of reaching out because the risk of
losing their child outweighs their fear of living with
shame.

Then there is the awareness, rising
suicide rates, media coverage and the opiate epidemic which
has cut across all racial and socioeconomic groups including
politicians.

All of this works in tandem together
to raise awareness and educate millions.

But thats just part of it.
Its not the secret sauce

The one thing that has been the most
influential is you. Yes, you are the secret
sauce.

You will be the ones wiping out
stigma. How?

I can sit here and write all day but
Im a minority in this game. With no audience, no one
to help me carry the message, it would die right here
collecting server dust.

Those of us who have lost a loved one
or are currently struggling with mental illness cant
do it alone.

Its our friends who run along
beside us, holding us up and encouraging us in our darkest
hour that are making a difference. Its a group effort
and you are our cheerleadersthe catalyst that is
sparking change.

Its an effort of love and
compassion which restores my faith in humanity

You have decided to stand up for
something. Youve decided that you are not ashamed to
post any of this on your social media profiles. You have
guts.

For that I am grateful. Because we are
starting to see real conversation and real change. People
everywhere are speaking out and you are amplifying that
message and emphasizing the importance of family because
youve seen the results of doing nothing and staying
silent.

People not supporting depression or
addiction as an illness have already started to look old,
stodgy, uninformed and close minded. I believe in less than
two years, it will be uncool to talk about
mental illness or addiction as moral failings.

If there is one thing people
dont like, they dont like to look bad. Or
stupid. That alone will incentivize people to change their
minds.

Hope, help for
teens with mental illnessAbout 20% of teens have a mental health condition, the
National Alliance on Mental Illness reports.

90% of teens who commit suicide had
underlying mental illness, according to NAMI.

About half of all instances of mental
illness begin by age 14, according to NAMI.

Graham Moore, the Academy Award winner
for Best Adapted Screenplay, said in his acceptance speech
Sunday that he contemplated suicide at age 16.

He urged kids who feel weird,
different, or like they don't belong to stick it out: "Stay
weird, stay different," he said, Oscar in hand. "And then
when it's your turn, and you are standing on this stage,
please pass the same message to the next person who comes
along."

It was a moment of national awareness
for teen suicide, the third-leading cause of death among
youths ages 10-24. Moore later told reporters he had
depression as a teen.

Just a couple days before the Academy
Awards, a 9-year-old Detroit boy hanged himself after
getting into an argument with his family. Three years ago,
there were headlines about a 7-year-old Detroit boy who
killed himself after being bullied.

Suicide is most common among people
with mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness
reports that 90% of youths who died by suicide had an
underlying mental illness.

To address that, and to offer help to
kids who are suffering and their families, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and a coalition of other
organizations plans to host a conference at 1 p.m. Sunday
about teen mental health at West Bloomfield High
School.

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is among the organizers of the conference. She said she will
never forget the agony of watching her 6-year-old daughter
fight through mood swings, bouts of extreme sadness, and
explosive tantrums.

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is chairwoman

Wren Beaulieu-Hack of West Bloomfield
is chairwoman of the youth professional council of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. (Photo: Joel Q.
Hack)

"By the time she was 9 or 10 years
old, she was saying, 'Mommy, I want to die. I don't know
why, I just want to die,' " she said. "This is a 9-year-old
child. This isn't a child who's aware of anything other than
an overwhelming desire.

"When your child says, 'I just want to
die, Mommy,' you can't say, 'Let's go get a lollipop and
it'll be all better, honey."

Beaulieu-Hack's little girl, Maggie,
eventually was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but was
terrified to tell anyone; she worried that she'd be shunned
at school or treated differently. She tried to hide her
illness, but by the time she came home at the end of the
school day, she would practically explode with pent-up
emotion, Beaulieu-Hack said.

"She was in her junior year in high
school before she told a single friend," she said. "The
reality is our kids are hiding, and they shouldn't have to.
And nor should the families have to hide. The parents are
hiding."

Beaulieu-Hack, chairwoman of the youth
professional council of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, is trying to ensure that no one needs
to hide anymore. She wants those who are struggling and
dealing with the shame of a mental health condition 
which affect 20% of teens, according to the National
Alliance on Mental Illness  to know there is help.
There are people who understand.

Among those who do is Ross Szabo, CEO
of the Human Power Project and author of "Behind Happy
Faces: Talking about Mental Health and Teen Mental Illness."
He was diagnosed at age 16 with bipolar disorder, and plans
to speak at the conference.

Ross Szabo, CEO of the Human Power
Project and author of Behind Happy Faces: Talking
about Mental Health and Teen Mental Illness" is to speak at
a conference at West Bloomfield High School March 1. (Photo:
Ben Zeiber)

"We treat mental health
conferences like conferences for other people," he told
the Free Press in a phone interview last week. "When what
we're seeing more and more now is that mental health can
affect so many different aspects of your life. I wish it
was possible to treat mental health conferences like
they're conferences for all people. They're really for
everybody."

Szabo developed a mental health
curriculum for schools and colleges that teaches coping
mechanisms, gives students a vocabulary to describe how
they're feeling and helps them know what to do if a friend
needs help.

"I think the most important
thing is to make mental health approachable," he said.
"We need to remove the stigma, let students know they can
talk about whatever they're going through, giving them a
vocabulary so when they're talking about what they're
going through they can talk about it with the right
words."

Those who attend the conference will
get information, as well as resources that can help families
as they work to address mental health issues. Those
resources are vital as services and medications often are
not covered by health insurance.

"My daughter has never been
covered by insurance  prescriptions or the care or
hospitalization," Beaulieu-Hack said. "There were months
I was spending $800 for prescriptions just for her. An
awareness many people don't have is the immense
cost."

Beyond that, Szabo says, is the
emotional toll.

"We don't talk about
emotions, period," Szabo said. "We don't talk about
emotional situations, period, and we don't think mental
illnesses are treatable. We create an environment where
someone does feel a lot of shame and embarrassment, and
they may feel weak for not being able to control what
they're going through.

"The most important thing I try to
do is normalize the concept of mental heath, rather than
isolating mental illness. If you're a parent or in any
aspect of life, it's important to come to something like
this. Mental health affects everyone, no matter what age
they are. The more we try to educate about it, the better
it's going to make people's lives."

A community conference on teen mental
health, called "The Dark Secret of Teen Mental Illness," is
open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. Sunday at West
Bloomfield High School, 4925 Orchard Lake Road, West
Bloomfield. Preregistration is a $5 donation to Common
Ground Sanctuary, or $10 at the door. Register online at
jewishdetroit.org/events.

Get help

If you are, or someone you know is,
considering suicide or need help right away, call the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or call
911.

Warning signs of mental
illness

Every form of mental illness has its
own symptoms but the National Alliance on Mental Illness,
www.nami.org, reports that some common signs in adults and
teens can include:

Excessive worrying or
fear

Feeling very sad or
low

Confused thinking or difficulty
with concentrating and learning

Extreme mood changes

Strong feelings of irritability or
anger

Avoiding friends and social
activities

Difficulty understanding or
relating to other people

Changes in sleeping habits or
feeling tired

Changes in eating
habits

Changes in sex drive

Difficulty perceiving
reality

Inability to recognize changes in
one's own feelings, behavior or personality

Between the
Lines: Suicides Shameful StigmaSuicide is the epitome of hopelessness. Its a last
resort for people who believe that there is no chance of
life improving. Options for help can seem unavailable or
unfathomable.

If there is an antidote for suicide,
we have yet to find it. But we can be fairly certain that
sneers of get over it are as helpful as shouting
at a drowning person to swim.

An antidote is exactly what the U.S.
needs, as the suicide rate in this nation is on a steady
rise. Since 2003, the suicide rate in America has grown by
4.2 percent annually. Overall, 5,100 people in Massachusetts
killed themselves between 2003 and 2012, according to the
Winter 2015 Suicides and Self-inflicted Injuries in
Massachusetts Data Summary produced by the Department of
Public Health.

In 2012, there were 624 suicides in
the state. This elevated the suicide rate from 6.6 deaths
per 100,000 people in 2003 to 9.4 deaths. Suicide isnt
just a problem in the U.S. According to the World Health
Organization, it is the third leading cause of death
worldwide.

Despite this growing health concern,
care and services for suicidal people and their loved ones
are seriously lacking. This probably has a lot to do with
the social stigma attached to having suicidal thoughts and
seeking help from loved ones or professionals. The social
shame associated with suicide keeps many quiet, the WHO and
state health department noted. In fact, suicides in this
nation and worldwide are underreported because people will
try to disguise their deaths as accidents  like a
single car crash or asphyxiation  and loved ones are
often too embarrassed, guilty, or ashamed to admit that a
death was a suicide.

This needs to stop before we lose more
bright, creative, caring people to self-harm. The U.S. and
the world can no longer treat suicide as a taboo subject.
Having suicidal thoughts does not make a person weak. Many
people, at some point in their lives, consider suicide. But
discussing suicidal ideation may seem horrifying. Fear of
rejection, of not being taken seriously, or of being carted
off to a mental hospital against ones will conspire to
keep suicidal thoughts a nightmare of one.

The first thing the state and the
nation can do to crack the stigma that keeps people from
seeking help is to decriminalize suicide. Calling suicide
and attempted suicide a crime reinforces the stigma that
suicide, and suicidal people, are dangerous and need to be
punished. Thats the message being sent from the top,
and until that changes, cultural attitudes about mental
health and suicide are going to be slow to shift.

The next thing the state and the
nation will need to do to quash this preventable and painful
scourge is to start funding community mental health
services. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) is the governments arm in the
field of suicide prevention, and it has been dialing back
programs that address suicide. In 2014, for example, SAMHSA
requested $50 million for suicide prevention programs 
$8 million less than what they asked for in 2012, according
to the TIME article Inside the National Suicide
Hotline: Preventing the Next Tragedy.

But increased funding must be spent
wisely, and when it comes to current suicide prevention,
its mostly trial and error to see what works, with
little ability to collect data on effectiveness. As the
research community will acknowledge, figuring out whether an
anti-suicide strategy works is difficult. Unless the
suicidal person comes back to where she received services
and says, You saved my life, theres no way
of knowing.

Right now, the countrys most
visible form of suicide prevention is the National Suicide
Prevention Hotline, which provides a person to talk to 24/7
at (800) 273-8255.

As someone who has needed to avail
myself of the hotlines services before, I can tell you
that the people who pick up the phone are well-meaning but,
at least in my experience, woefully unprepared to provide
assistance. The last time I called the hotline, about three
years ago, it was to get advice on how to help a suicidal
friend, but the operator refused to believe I wasnt
suicidal. She asked me over and over again whether this
friend I was calling for was really
myself.

My friend was on the edge and I
couldnt wrangle any help from the hotline, which was
disappointing. I hung up and called the Springfield police
to conduct a wellness check on my friend. Im not sure
how that played out. My friend is still alive, but that
night was the last time I spoke with her. Im pretty
sure that night was also the first night she reached out to
anyone for help with her suicidal thoughts. But she needed
help long before that and never got it because she was too
afraid admitting her problem would get her locked up in a
mental institution away from her children. A single mother
should not feel like her only options are killing herself or
suffering in silence.

Suicide is wiping out large swaths of
our population. The time to sweep mental illness and
suicidal thoughts out of our hearts and minds is over.
Suicide should be discussed openly and without fear 
it is the only way to take power away from this twisted
killer. Politicians can show real leadership in this by
ridding the nation of the stigma and decriminalizing
suicide.

Using school
bathrooms to promote mental healthWe've developed a program that could be used to put
bathrooms to use to inform student about for any
issue: Anything from homecoming to a major competition
with other schools, to issues like suicide, depression,
bullying, dangers of eneergy drinks, and more. While the
bathroom can serve many causes from a hang-out, to a place
to comkmit illegal acts, to it's actual purpose of
releavingt oneself. And it is this process that keeps
student's captive for a length of time, many daily. Sitting
on the porcelon throne or standing in a urnal, there is a
period of time that the studnts has ilttle else they can do
- except maybe read.

Therein is our campaign. Put a message
in front of them.

While out campaign slogans are printed
and include the national suicide helpline phone number and
the Crisis
Text Line number 741741, a
visit to https://www.healthyplace.com/insight/quotes/quotes-on-mental-illness-stigma/
will give you over 100 sayiings with meaningful images in
four color. Some are more adult oriented, but a number are
ideal to speak to different age levels of our students. What
you might do is note where you attach a particular imaage
and incourage students to take one home that is very meaning
for you. (or keep it in their note book, locker, mirror at
home as a reminder that they are more than their
issues.

Costs
of StereotypesStereotypes can have a high price, notes
Hyde.

There is a "huge cost to belief in
overinflated claims about gender differences -- costs in
interpersonal relationships [and] in the workplace,"
she says.

For instance, self-esteem issues are
usually mentioned for teen girls, not teen boys, Hyde
notes.

"We could overlook the boys with
self-esteem problems because we're so focused on girls'
problems," she says.

Likewise, Hyde says she doesn't want
to see girls' math ability downplayed because people
mistakenly believe that boys are better at math.

Tendency to Typecast

The media often play up gender
differences, and people often do the same thing, Hyde
notes.

"Humans have a tendency to
categorize," she says. "We want to categorize people into
males and females, blacks and whites, gays and straights.
That's a powerful tendency.

"Beliefs in gender differences are
very comfortable to people," she says. "It's convenient.
Your marriage is in trouble, you go to the therapist, you're
having communication problems, it's because she communicates
differently than I do," she says.

"Well, the research doesn't actually
show huge gender differences in communication," Hyde
continues. "It's not about one person being a man and one a
woman. It's about trying to communicate better, which is
hard work."

* * *

Suicide does not end the chances of
life getting worse. Suicide eliminates the possibility of it
ever getting better.